Author: Rev Bill Crawford

Pastor of First Presbyterian Church (Houma/Thibodaux) Husband to Julia Father of three Owner of one dog - "Val" Child of God and loving it!
Posted in 40 Days updates

Early Reports are In and a shared Blessing

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

The 40 Days of Blessing are off to a powerful start. I think two groups have still to meet but we are on track to have over 50 people participate in small groups this week alone!

More groups can be formed and we do have extra copies of the book for those who would like to join in.

Yesterday I attended the funeral of a dear friend and a real pillar of the faith in my life. She was a true disciple. What a blessing to have known such a Christian as Kay! To celebrate her life in Christ was a powerful reminder to me of a season in which God chose to bless me and he did so powerfully through the actions of his Church at Canal Street Presbyterian.

Thank you Kay and all my brothers and sisters from Canal Street!

Posted in 40 Days updates, Uncategorized

Do Something Fridays

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

Today’s 40 Days of Blessing devotion reminds us that the church is supposed to do good!

A shocking revelation!

What is our problem? I think world peace, poverty, homelessness, and sin just overwhelm our thinking and we tend to just turn away and focus on being nice people instead. Why not just do something? Even a little something – is something!

So today I’m encouraging my small group to bring canned goods, I’ll deliver them to the food pantry next week. Why don’t all of you take a little time today and schedule a stop at the food pantry, drop off a can, two cans, maybe some diswasher powder – something.

After all a lot of little somethings can add up! Try this experiment.

Take out a calculator, type in the number 1 multiply it by two, then multiply by two, and then multiply by two – and so on and so on….

How long did it take to get to a million? A little something can grow if we all do it.

God Bless you today – now go do something for Jesus’ sake.

Posted in Uncategorized

The Blessing Life is…!

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

There are so many confusing ideas about what the blessing life is. Rather than tell you what it isn’t let me start with the core truth about the blessing life – God has blessed us.

From the mouth of babes!

Be blessed today by God believe in him.

Then Bless God passionately for what he has done.

Then bless others.

That’s the Christian life.

Posted in Uncategorized

Wednesday’s Thought

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

Reading from The Blessing Life Week one Day 4:

God’s blessing project extends to the ends of the earth. The Lord desires to bring his saving power to bear among all nations. Pray for the Church throughout the world. Pray for those who have never heard of Jesus. Pray for our missionaries.

Today I especially pray for my friends doing missions in:

India
Indonesia
and
Sudan

Will you pray for missionaries? What countries are you covering in prayer today?

Posted in 40 Days of Blessing Sermons

40 Days of Blessing – Introductory Sermon

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

Here is the sermon from our introduction to the 40 Days of Blessing:

Introduction Message: 40 Days of Blessing

Monday Morning Quarterback (what I meant to say was…):

I meant to say (early in the message) – “That the Reformation was a transition from a theology of “Works Righteousness” – to a theology of dependence on Grace”. What I actually said was nearly the exact opposite. I will depend on God’s grace in having made this error.

The Blessing Life is more than another 40 day church program – it is the core Christian lifestyle – join in and see!

Posted in 40 Days of Blessing Previews

Religion is….

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

I was sent this youtube clip today:

A few nits I would pick:

Jesus had issues with “religious men” not the Religion of Judaism – which is given by God in books like Leviticus.

Jesus absolutely had problems with self righteousness – but he also had huge issues with people’s lack of personal holiness.

Also:
The author seems to have his favorite groups to pick on – no telling what his motives are (my guess is he actually is hardest on groups he belongs to) but “there are none without sin, no not one.”

BUT!

All that aside this clip is a powerful mirror that can expose our own personal fall into self righteousness. It is a reminder that the expression from scripture, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ likewise means – “I can do no worthy thing without Christ strengthening me.”

The Blessing Life begins when we acknowledge our “inability” and embrace God’s “ability”.

Come with me on this journey and get locked into the 40 Days of Blessing project. If you are not a local there will be daily devotions on this website that you can engage in. If you are local then; get the prayer guide, get in a small group, and (if you don’t have a church family) come and see us on Sunday.

All are welcome to the 10:10 am breakfast at 522 Green St. Thibodaux, La 70301. We will discuss and roll out the program fully at that time.

Posted in 40 Days of Blessing Previews

How do we do 40 Days of Blessing?

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

The “how” of 40 Days of Blessing is part of its genius. It’s as simple as one, two three. On the 15th we will hand out the devotional guides for the program at our

1) We daily receive the blessings of God from his word.
2) We return that blessing to God as we praise his Glory.
3) We reflect the blessing to others.

All you have to do is give God 15 minutes of your day.

If you want to expand the blessing you can put into active action throughout each day (simple ideas will be given each day). You can also join in a small group and discuss the blessing of God with a group of folks on the same journey. Additionally the sermons at First Presbyterian of Thibodaux will be focused on the topic and there will be devotional materials placed on this site throughout the 40 Days.

You decide how involved you want to get but be ready to encounter the blessing life!

Posted in 40 Days of Blessing Previews

Why 40 Days of Blessing?

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

40 days is a good biblical number and there are so many misconceptions out there about the blessing of God. This is a needed and timely program to reorient the Church to a proper relationship to the God of the Universe we know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Blessing of God is his love not our wealth:

1 John 4:10-11 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

To quote the author Gerrit Dawson:

It’s all about love.
Plain and simple.
Deep and wide.
The blessing of God upon us and our blessing of one another both arise from love and create love.

So this project about blessing is not about how to get more of the life we’ve dreamed up for ourselves as desirable. It’s not about expanding our sales territory, getting in the path of windfalls from the universe….

We’re after knowing, living and sharing the love that is at the heart of all things. That’s the only life of blessing worth talking about.

Romans 5:8 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Blessings to you!

Posted in 40 Days of Blessing Previews

What Is The Blessing Life?

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

The Blessing Life is first of all a devotional shared at First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge last year during Lent. Secondly it is an as yet unpublished book authored by Rev. Gerrit Dawson of First Presbyterian of Baton Rouge. A dear friend and deep thinker who loves God and the Church. So let me begin by quoting Gerrit:

“A blessing is not simply what you say before a meal or after someone sneezes. A “real blessing” is no just having everything work out the way we want it. And blessing is certainly not to be defined merely by how cool the stuff is that comes to us. Of course all those things are part of the true meaning of blessing. But they are merely ripples on the surface of the deep ocean of God’s blessing to us, indeed to the whole world, in Christ Jesus.”

Or as I summarize it – “Jesus is the most important person you can know”. The incarnation is the blessing of God the question for us all is “Are you experiencing the incarnation as a personal blessing?”

Sunday the 15th we will begin to open the doors to the Blessing Life and we will be sneaking some peeks over the next 10 days.

May you truly be blessed.